[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] First, if you don’t know anything about installing speakers these are not for you. These speakers don’t come with any wires. The instructions are basic only says you will need 16-12 gauge speaker wires and a good quality amplifier. The magnetic grill is removable I think it looks good with it on. However once you get everything together the sound quality is crisp, the quality of the speaker is great love the design goes well with my decor. Just wish it came with speaker wires!
I recently purchased two of these bookshelf speakers as “replacements” for a set of Klipsch KSP-400 floor standing power houses that I’ve had for years. The 400’s were recently the victims of a lightning strike which damaged the subwoofer amplifiers. I knew going in that there was no way the 500M’s were going to sound as good as the 400’s but I was also trying to downsize the footprint and was willing to compromise somewhat to accomplish this. I connected the new speakers to my receiver and began listening to some of my favorite music and knew immediately that I would need a subwoofer. The 500M’s handled the power of the receiver very well without breaking up, but the smaller woofers just didn’t have the bass response. At lower levels, something is missing. It’s not fair for me to compare the 500M’s to the 400’s because they are so different in design. The 500M’s are pretty efficient, but do seem to require more power to sound really great than I expected they would. At loud playing levels these speakers are incredible for their size. With the addition of a subwoofer they lack nothing at all. I currently have these sitting on the floor next to my system. If I didn’t have two large dogs, I would like to have them on speaker stands to get them up at ear level, but I’m afraid they would be knocked over and damaged. Life is full of compromises and this is just one more. All in all I’m very satisfied with this purchase. They are a good pair of speakers for the price.